1st HR summit - organized by IIM Raipur

In the 1st HR Summit, organized by IIM Raipur at Hotel Gateway Taj, Raipur on September 19 – 20, 2014, over 50 erudite HR professionals from across industry verticals explore and exchange ideas about various aspects related to “Aligning HR with Business Strategy”. On the first day event, three panel discussions were held.

The grand inauguration ceremony was attended by the who’s who of the Indian Corporate community. Chief Guest Shri Narendra Kothari, CMD, NMDC along with keynote speakers Shri K Ramkumar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, and Shri S Chandrashekharan, CEO, Bhilai Steel Plant stated the relevance of human capital in the organisation. In his inaugural address, he ascertained that better HR policies are the best way of motivating people to work. He stressed on the need for proper performance differentiation during appraisal. “But for this to work transparency of the system has to be ensured”, said Shri Kothari. Regarding hiring, he felt that it was important to go into the details.While hiring a new employee one must try to align the job requirements with the personal requirements.

Professor B S Sahay, Director IIM Raipur, explained in his welcome address why the subject was of vital significance to IIM Raipur. “IIM Raipur was envisioned as an institute that would give a lot of emphasis to research. Keeping this in mind it was important for us to hire the right faculty who could help the institute accomplish this objective”, said Dr Sahay. Aligning HR policy with the business strategy was of critical importance to any organization. The policies should be shaped in such a way that they help to sustain the business goals and objectives in the long term.

Earlier, Professor Atri Sengupta, Co-Convener of the Summit, introduced the summit to the audience. “The days are gone when HR was just as a support function. Today the HR discipline is constantly evolving to keep pace with the rapid change in global trends”, she said. Shri G Ojha, The Summit Advisor, stated that although it was in an organization’s best interest to align the HR policies with its overall business strategy, it was easier said than done. According to him for an HR professional to, “pierce the clouds and shake the dead from their shrouds”, he should think creatively and question the status quo. “HR professionals should constantly strive to infuse fresh ideas and innovative new practices into the organization.” said Shri Ojha.

Shri K Ramkumar, the Key note Speaker, said that business professional should stop identifying themselves according to their specialization. One should not refer to oneself as an HR professional or a marketing professional, but as a business leader who is capable of transforming the organization by performing any duty that is demanded of him.

In his address, Shri S Chandrashekharan, The Guest of Honour, described how HR could play a very important role in forming business strategy. The HR department of a company should take the necessary steps to attract and retain talent so that the pipeline never gets short. “The success of HR lies in being fast, forward, fearless and flexible”, said Shri Chandrasekhar. Afterwards, Prof. Sanjeev Prashar, C hairman Placement, IIM Raipur and summit advisor proposed the vote of thanks.

The panel discussions began shortly after the inauguration ceremony. The first panel dealt with the importance of connecting with employees – the internal customers of an organization. The panel focused on leveraging this intangible asset for an effective performance through a well-planned and effective internal customer management system. The discussion brought forth a torrent of ideas as the panelists deliberated on the various aspects of the subject. They spoke about the importance of identifying the internal customers. These include both investors and employees. “In these days of multi generational work structure, the biggest challenge before the HR department is to segment the internal customers and deal with each segment differently”, said Shri Faisal NadeemSaiyed, Director HR (India), Expedia Inc. The HR department was responsible for infusing mood, morale, and passion into the bloodstream of the employees. “If you keep your employees happy that directly translates to happy customers”, said Shri Tojo Jose, EVP (HR), Bluestar. Shri RavindraDharkar, VP (Talent Acquisition and L & D), Lafarge India Pvt. Ltd. , opined that the function of HR is to find out if the employees are performing to their potential and taking necessary steps to improve the performance. “Today the business requirements and technologies are changing continuously and the HR is faced with the dilemma of devising new techniques to upscale the employees” Shri Yogesh Misra, Head (India Ops.), People Metrics felt that aligning the goals of individuals with the organizational goals is the main challenge faced by the HRs. “Talent management is beyond models and techniques. Look at talent with different perspective. Place the person according to talents and needs.” Shri A. Thirunavukkarasu, President (Corp. Develop.), Vedanta Group moderated the first panel.

The second panel highlighted the need to build organizational capabilities in turbulent times by creating a learning and performance based culture, planning for learning, promoting a feedback system, focusing on health, well-being and treating people with respect and dignity. ShriRabindra Singh, Director (Personnel), NMDC who moderated the session said, ”Any system has to have an art, so it is with HR”. Dr. Dewakar Goel, GM (HR), Airports Authority of India stressed on the need for HR managers to respond differently to different situations. “One needs to be a situational manager”, he asserted. Shri H. R. Choudhury, GM (Personnel), Bhilai Steel Plant said that HR managers needed to inculcate a sense of belongingness. “Unless you sail in uncharted waters you won’t find new shores”, he said. ShriRanjan Kumar,VP (Research & Info), DION Global remarked that the HR systems of an organization had to be resilient enough to withstand the turbulence that arise as a result of increasing business complexity. “This is why it is important for all budding mangers to learn HR subjects”. Ms. Madhvi Arora, Senior Director,Yodlee,shared her experiences as an HR manager in different organizations. “One of the most important roles of an HR was to help the employees recognize change and accept it”, she said. Shri Srikanth Sundaram, Chief (HR), CMI FPE Ltd “There is a mental block towards accepting change and HR mangers had to streamline the process so that the change takes place smoothly”

The final panel of the day discussed the ways in which an HR professional acts as a strategic business partner, critically evaluating the current contributions of HR to organizational objectives, thus paving the way for HR, fulfilling its strategic objectives.Dr. Santosh Bhave, Sr. VP (HR, IR & Admin.) Bharat Forge Ltd. introduced the panel, and shared his experiences as an HR manager. Shri Raghavendra K,VP& Head (HRD) Infosys BPO quoted “As an HR we need to look at what makes a company tick or a company sick.” He touched upon agility, adaptability and accountability an HR should have in the growth of a business.Ms. NirmalaGarg, Senior VP (HR), VSoft Corporation emphasized on understanding the expectations of the key stakeholders of the company.Ms. SonaliDua,VP (HR), Deloitte gave insights about how to make HR activities and talent acquisition go hand in hand with client knowledge and business strategies. She made clear that today knowledge is doubling and skills are cut half every year. Shri Sreenivasan, Consultant (Strategic HR), Hetero Drugs said that making employees realize the need to embarking new skills in the continuously changing business requirement and providing training for inculcating those skills in the employees. Shri SPS Jaggi, GM (Business Planning), Bhilai Steel Plant emphasized that HR managers are not recognized by what they know but by what they execute in the organization.Shri Shaikh Umar Ali, Director, ATOS India HR makes the right people, grooms the right people and in case attrition occurs, replaces with right people.

The first day of the summit came to a close with cultural performances. The stage was dazzled with traditional dance performances.

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